Retreat, Hell!

by W. E. B Griffin

  BEGIN PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM MAJOR GENERAL HOWE

  DEAR HARRY

  I JUST GOT WORD THAT GENERAL PICKERING IS ON HIS WAY HERE TO SEOUL. HIS SON IS TO BE TAKEN FROM THE CARRIER BADOENG STRAIT TO PUSAN ON A DESTROYER AND FLOWN FROM THERE TO SASEBO AND FROM THERE TO THE STATES. PICKERING UNDERSTANDABLY WANTS TO SEE HIM BEFORE HE GOES HOME.

  BUT TYPICAL OF PICKERING, DUTY FIRST.

  BEFORE HE GOES TO PUSAN HE’S COMING HERE AND TO SOCHO-RI, THE BASE FROM WHICH MCCOY OPERATES ON THE EAST COAST. HE HAS WITH HIM COLONEL BANNING, WHO HAS BEEN HANDLING THESE COMMUNICATIONS AT CAMP PENDLETON, AND WHO WILL NOW, I PRESUME, SERVE AS HIS DEPUTY HERE.

  THE FIRST BAD NEWS IS THAT I DON’T THINK WE ARE GOING TO GET GENERAL DEAN BACK. THIS I’M PRETTY SURE OF AS IT COMES FROM LT COL VANDENBURG, THE OFFICER SENT WITH THE MISSION OF GETTING HIM BACK, MCCOY, AND BILL DUNSTON, THE CIA SEOUL STATION CHIEF. THEIR AGENTS, OR THEY PERSONALLY, HAVE SPENT A GOOD DEAL OF TIME BEHIND THE ENEMY’S LINES AND THEY ALL TELL ME, AND I BELIEVE, THAT DEAN HAS BEEN TAKEN TO CHINA.

  Second, unless something has happened that i don’t know about, macarthur probably told you on wake island what he told me before he left, that the chinese and/or the russians are not going to come into the war and that it’s really a moot question, because even if they did it would not pose a problem and would give us a chance to bloody their nose.

  MCCOY AS I WRITE THIS IS SOMEWHERE BEHIND THE ENEMY’S LINES IN THE FAR NORTH TRYING TO EAVESDROP ON SOVIET ARMY RADIO COMMUNICATIONS TO SEE IF HE CAN LEARN SOMETHING OF THEIR DISPERSAL, SIZE, AND INTENTIONS. HE IS NOT DOING THE SAME FOR THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS BECAUSE HE BELIEVES THAT THERE ARE SOME SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND CHINESE—THAT’S RIGHT, SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND—IN THE FOURTH FIELD ARMY EITHER ON THE BORDER OR ALREADY SLIPPING INTO NORTH KOREA AND THEY ARE NOT USING THEIR RADIOS.

  THERE IS NO QUESTION IN EITHER MCCOY’S OR DUNSTON’S MIND THAT THE CHINESE ARE COMING INTO THE WAR. THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEY DON’T HAVE ENOUGH HARD INTELLIGENCE TO MAKE THAT JUDGMENT VIS-A-VIS THE RUSSIANS.

  WHEN I, WITHOUT MENTIONING MCCOY OR DUNSTON, ASKED MAJ GEN CHARLES WILLOUGHBY, MACARTHUR’S INTELLIGENCE OFFICER, WHETHER HE HAS ANY INFORMATION ABOUT CHINESE BEING ON THE BORDER, HE FLATLY STATED THERE WERE NOT, AND IF THERE HAD BEEN ANY UNUSUAL MOVEMENT OF CHINESE TROOPS HE WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT, AND ASSURED ME THAT IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO HIDE THE MOVEMENT, OR THE PRESENCE, OF “SUBSTANTIAL TROOP FORMATIONS.”

  THIS AFTERNOON X CORPS WILL SAIL FROM INCHON AROUND THE TIP OF THE PENINSULA TO WONSAN. THE ORIGINAL IDEA WAS THEY WOULD MAKE AN AMPHIBIOUS LANDING AT WONSAN, AND THEN STRIKE BACK ACROSS THE PENINSULA, TOWARD PYONGYANG, CUTTING OFF THE RETREATING NORTH KOREANS.

  THERE ARE SEVERAL PROBLEMS WITH THIS. FOR ONE THING THE I ROK CORPS IS ALREADY IN WONSAN, AND THE SEA APPROACHES TO WONSAN AND HUNGNAM HAVE BEEN MINED. MCCOY’S PEOPLE HAVE INTERCEPTED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE MINELAYING VESSELS IN RUSSIAN, WHICH SUGGESTS TO HIM THAT THE RUSSIANS ARE LAYING THE MINES.

  I SAW DUNSTON’S MESSAGE A WEEK AGO TO THE TOKYO CIA STATION CHIEF IN WHICH HE REPORTED THIS. PRESUMABLY THIS INTELLIGENCE WAS PASSED ON TO WILLOUGHBY. SO FAR AS I CAN FIND OUT, IT WAS NEVER PASSED ON TO X CORPS, EIGHTH ARMY, OR THE NAVY. THE FIRST THE NAVY LEARNED OF THE MINES WAS WHEN A HELICOPTER FROM ONE OF THE BABY CARRIERS ON A DOWNED PILOT RESCUE MISSION FLEW LOW OVER THE APPROACHES TO HAMHUNG AND SAW THE MINES IN THE WATER. THE NAVY SENT A MINESWEEPER TO CHECK AND IT HIT A MINE AND SANK.

  THIS MEANS THAT WHEN X CORPS ARRIVES OFF WONSAN OR HAMHUNG SOMETIME TOMORROW OR THE DAY AFTER, THEY WILL HAVE TO SAIL BACK AND FORTH UNTIL THE MINES ARE SWEPT, AND THAT WILL TAKE THREE TO FIVE DAYS.

  MEANWHILE, ON THE WEST COAST, GENERAL WALKER’S EIGHTH ARMY IS IN PURSUIT OF THE RETREATING NORTH KOREANS. ONE OF THE WAYS THEY ARE DOING THIS IS WITH A DROP OF THE 187TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT. THE ONLY JUSTIFICATION I HAVE HEARD FOR THIS IS THAT THERE ARE A NUMBER OF PARACHUTE OFFICERS ON THE EIGHTH ARMY STAFF WHO DIDN’T WANT THE PARATROOPS LEFT OUT OF THE WAR.

  One of the radio teletype machines in the room began to clatter, and Pickering stopped reading the message.

  Di-san went quickly to it, then turned to Howe and Pickering.

  “It’s a back-channel from Sergeant Keller,” she announced. “Depending on how long it is, it will take me a couple of minutes to type it into the decryption machine. ”

  A back-channel message is one sent between operators at two communications facilities, in this case the Dai Ichi Building (UNC) communications center and the communications room in the house. Intended primarily to announce schedules, down equipment, and other technical matters, they are not logged and officially do not exist.

  Pickering smiled and nodded his understanding, then turned to Howe.

  “Why don’t you tell the President what you really think, Ralph, without being so polite?”

  Howe chuckled.

  “Read on, Flem,” he said. “It gets better.”

  Pickering dropped his eyes to the yet-to-be-transmitted message.

  ANYWAY, WITHIN A COUPLE OF DAYS, EIGHTH ARMY WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY TAKE PYONGYANG.

  MCCOY AND DUNSTON (SEPARATELY) HAVE TOLD ME THE CAPTURE OF THE NORTH KOREA CAPITAL MAY BE THE TRIGGER FOR THE CHINESE TO ENTER THE WAR. OPERATIVE WORDS MAY BE THE TRIGGER.

  BY THE TIME EIGHTH ARMY TAKES PYONGYANG, THE MINES ON THE EAST COAST WILL PROBABLY BE CLEARED, AND X CORPS CAN LAND. THE QUESTION THEN BECOMES WHAT WILL X CORPS HAVE TO DO? SINCE PYONGYANG WILL HAVE FALLEN, THERE IS NO POINT IN HAVING X CORPS RECROSS THE PENINSULA TO TAKE IT. THE ONLY THING LEFT FOR THEM TO DO IS MOVE NORTHWARD ALONG THE EAST COAST TOWARD THE CHINESE BORDER.

  THE SOUTH KOREANS ARE ALREADY MOVING TOWARD THE BORDER.

  MCCOY AND DUNSTON (AGAIN SEPARATELY) HAVE BOTH TOLD ME THAT WHILE THE CHINESE MIGHT NOT REGARD THE SOUTH KOREANS AS A REAL THREAT—THEY HAVE TO RELY ON U.S. LOGISTICS—ONCE THE CHINESE LEARN THAT THE X CORPS IS COMING THAT WAY THEY VERY LIKELY WILL CONSIDER THAT MACARTHUR IS PLANNING TO STRIKE ACROSS THE BORDER. MACARTHUR HAS TOLD ME, AND I BELIEVE, HE HAS NO PLANS TO GO ACROSS THE CHINESE BORDER, BUT THAT ISN’T THE POINT. WHAT THE CHINESE THINK IS WHAT’S IMPORTANT. MCCOY AND DUNSTON THINK THAT ONCE THE CHINESE LEARN THAT X CORPS IS APPROACHING THE BORDER, THEY WILL COME INTO THE WAR. I CANNOT FAULT THEIR LOGIC.

  IT CAN BE ARGUED—AND GENERAL WALKER DOES SO EFFECTIVELY—THAT IF HE HAD COMMAND OF X CORPS, THERE WOULD BE OVERALL CONTROL AND COORDINATION. HE SPENT ALMOST AS MUCH TIME EXPLAINING THIS TO ME AS HE DID COMPLAINING ABOUT HIS MISSING AIRPLANE. I HAVE THE FEELING THAT IF HE WERE GIVEN COMMAND, THE FIRST THING HE WOULD DO WOULD BE TO RELIEVE GENERAL ALMOND, WHOM HE CORDIALLY DETESTS, AND VICE VERSA.

  THERE IS NOT MUCH LOVE LOST BETWEEN MACARTHUR AND WALKER EITHER, WHICH IS ONE OF THE REASONS HE IS NOT ABOUT TO PLACE X CORPS UNDER EIGHTH ARMY. THERE ARE OTHERS, WHICH INCLUDE ALMOND—WHO IS A GOOD MAN—AGREEING WITH MACARTHUR’S CONCEPT OF FIGHTING THIS WAR. ANOTHER, OF COURSE, IS THAT IF X CORPS IS UNDER EIGHTH ARMY, ALMOND COULD NOT CONTINUE TO WEAR BOTH HATS, THAT OF X CORPS COMMANDER AND CHIEF OF STAFF TO MACARTHUR. IF ALMOND WERE RELIEVED AS X CORPS COMMANDER, “ONE OF WALKER’S MEN” WOULD GET IT. IF HE WERE RELIEVED AS CHIEF OF STAFF, THAT WOULD PERMIT THE PENTAGON TO SEND A REPLACEMENT OF THEIR CHOOSING. NEITHER ALTERNATIVE IS ACCEPTABLE TO MACARTHUR.

  I HAVE NO IDEA HOW EVEN YOU CAN STOP THIS INTERNECINE WARFARE BETWEEN YOUR SENIOR OFFICERS, BUT I HAVE BEEN BOTH WORKING WITH PICKERING AND FILLING IN FOR HIM LONG ENOUGH SO THAT I FEEL COMFORTABLE OFFERING SOME ADVICE ABOUT INTELLIGENCE GENERALLY AND THE CIA IN PARTICULAR.

  YOU WERE WRONG—AS YOU TOLD ME—WHEN YOU DISESTABLISHED THE OSS, AND YOUR APPOINTMENT OF ADMIRAL HILLENCOETTER TO HEAD THE CIA OBVIOUSLY HASN’T WORKED. IF MCCOY HADN’T GONE TO PICKERING AND PICKERING’S FRIENDSHIP WITH SENATOR FOWLER HADN’T GOTTEN HIM IN TO SEE HILLENCOETTER WE WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN THAT THERE WAS INTELLIGENCE SAYING THE NORTH KOREANS WERE GOING TO ATTACK. AND THAT WOULD HAVE MEANT THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT COULD CLAIM, AND WOULD HAVE CLAIMED, THAT THIS PROVED THE CIA WAS ESSENTIALLY USELESS AND USING UP APPROPRIATIONS THAT THEY COULD
PUT TO BETTER USE.

  ROOSEVELT’S AND DONOVAN’S IDEA THAT THERE SHOULD BE A CENTRAL AGENCY FOR INTELLIGENCE NOT SUBORDINATE TO ANYONE IN THE MILITARY WAS A GOOD ONE, EVEN IF THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT IMMEDIATELY PUT THEIR WAGONS IN A CIRCLE TO FIGHT THE OSS, AND HAVE ALREADY STARTED TO DO SO WITH THE CIA.

  THE FIRST THING TO DO THEN IS MAKE SURE WALTER BEDELL SMITH UNDERSTANDS THAT HIS TITLE IS “MR. DIRECTOR” AND NOT “GENERAL” AND THAT HE ANSWERS TO NO ONE BUT YOU. IF HE’S TO DO A GOOD JOB, HE HAS TO BE FREE OF THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT AND ITS OLD BOY NETWORK.

  THE SECOND THING TO DO IS MAKE SURE THAT INTELLIGENCE GATHERED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, BUT RIGHT NOW ESPECIALLY HERE, GOES DIRECTLY TO WASHINGTON, WHERE IT SHOULD BE EVALUATED BY SMITH AND THEN SENT TO WHOEVER MIGHT HAVE USE FOR IT. IF THAT IS DONE, THE VARIOUS COMMANDS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO IGNORE INTELLIGENCE THAT DOESN’T FIT THEIR AGENDA.

  FOR ALL I KNOW, YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY STARTED SOMETHING LIKE THIS. PICKERING, YOU TOLD ME, WAS GOING TO MEET WITH SMITH. I’M SURE PICKERING TOLD HIM HOW HE THINKS IT SHOULD BE DONE, AND HE APPARENTLY DID THAT WELL ENOUGH TO HAVE COME BACK OVER HERE WITH AT LEAST SOME OF THE AUTHORITY HE NEEDS. I HAVE LEARNED THAT HE HAS RELIEVED THE CIA TOKYO STATION CHIEF, WHO WAS BOTH INCOMPETENT AND THOUGHT OF HIMSELF AS A MEMBER OF MACARTHUR’S STAFF. I DON’T KNOW THIS, BUT I SUSPECT PICKERING WILL REPLACE HIM WITH COLONEL BANNING, WHO WORKED FOR HIM IN WAR TWO AND IS HELD IN HIGH REGARD BY MCCOY AND OTHERS. AND WHO WILL WORK FOR PICKERING, THAT IS THE CIA, NOT MACARTHUR.

  IN THIS LATTER CONNECTION, I AM VERY IMPRESSED WITH VANDENBURG AND VERY WORRIED THAT WILLOUGHBY WILL TRY—AND PROBABLY SUCCEED—TO GET CONTROL OF HIM. I RECOMMEND THAT YOU ORDER—AS OPPOSED TO SUGGEST—THAT HE BE PLACED ON TDY TO THE CIA AND PLACED UNDER PICKERING.

  BY NOW, HARRY, YOU MUST SENSE THAT MY POSITION IS “A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES.” IT IS. YOU MUST ALSO SENSE THAT I HAVE TAKEN SIDES. I HAVE. I REALLY THINK MY USEFULNESS TO YOU HERE IS OVER, AND I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST RELIEF.

  PICKERING CAN DO FOR YOU WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING, AND IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE ALL ALONG. AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF YOU ARE ENTITLED TO GET THE FACTS, AND IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE CIA IS WHERE YOU SHOULD GET THEM.

  I’M GOING TO SHOW PICKERING THIS BEFORE I SEND IT, LARGELY BECAUSE I WANT HIM TO KNOW WHAT I’M TELLING YOU.

  RESPECTFULLY, AND WITH BEST REGARDS TO BESS

  RALPH

  END PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM GENERAL HOWE

  TOP SECRET/PRESIDENTIAL

  Pickering raised his eyes to Howe.

  “Jesus, Ralph,” he said.

  “Is there anything in there you disagree with?” Howe asked.

  “No,” Pickering said simply. “Except you wanting to leave me here to face the lions all by myself.”

  “I’ve outlived my usefulness,” Howe said. “And I really think you can do anything for the President that I can.”

  He put out his hand for the message, and when Pickering handed it to him, he turned to Di-san. She was sitting at the keyboard of the decryption machine, her fingers flying over the keys.

  As they watched, the electric typewriter section of the machine began to clatter as it typed the now decrypted message.

  She waited until it had finished, then ripped the yellow paper from the machine and handed it to Howe.

  “Thank you,” he said, and handed her his message. “Put the correct date time block on this, please, and send it.”

  Di-san nodded and turned back to the keyboard.

  Howe read the back-channel, then handed it to Pickering.

  FROM KELLER

  TO ROGERS OR JENNINGS

  PASS TO GEN PICKERING ON ARRIVAL: COL HUFF CAME TO IMPERIAL LOOKING FOR HIM. HE FINALLY TOLD ME WHY. MACARTHUR HAD SENT HIM TO TELL THE GENERAL THAT MAJ PICKERING WAS TRANSFERRED FROM THE CARRIER TO THE DESTROYER MANSFIELD AT 1500. MANSFIELD IS EN ROUTE PUSAN, ETA EARLY TOMORROW. MAJ PICKERING WILL BE FLOWN IN HOSPITAL PLANE TO SASEBO, AND THEN ON TO THE NAVY HOSPITAL IN SAN DIEGO. TELL THE GENERAL I THOUGHT ERNIE AND MRS PICKERING WOULD WANT TO KNOW, AND SO I HAVE PASSED THE WORD.

  “Well,” Howe said, “I guess you’ll want to be in Pusan when he gets there.”

  “I’ll have Hart get us seats on the Round Robin in the morning,” Pickering said.

  “The Beaver’s at your disposal, Flem,” Howe said. “If you want, you can use that.”

  “I hadn’t thought about that,” Pickering replied. “I guess what I could do is leave early, and go to Pusan by way of Socho-Ri. Would that be possible?”

  “You could also wait to go to Socho-Ri after you see your boy,” Howe said. “Your call, Flem.”

  “Let’s go see what the pilot says,” Pickering said, and then had another thought. “Keller didn’t mention Jeanette Priestly. I’m sure Pick’s lady friend’ll want to see him. She’s in Wonsan, right? Maybe we could pick her up at the same time.”

  “I don’t know if she’s in Wonsan or not,” Howe said. “Or, for that matter, where she is.”

  “Really?” His surprise showed in his voice.

  “I know Dunston and McCoy were looking for her, but I never heard where they found her.”

  “Well, let’s go find out,” Pickering said. “I think Pick will be far more interested in seeing her than me.”

  “General,” Bill Dunston said a little uncomfortably. “The first thing I did when I got the Killer’s Operational Immediate was call the Press Center at Eighth Army. They told me they expected her but she hadn’t arrived yet. I left word for her to call me the minute she got in.”

  “And she didn’t call?” Pickering said.

  “No, she didn’t. So—maybe around suppertime—I went there myself. She had been there—they told me they had given her my message, and that she had signed on to the roster for a Gooney Bird flight to Wonsan. They said it was a long roster and she almost certainly wouldn’t get out the next day, more likely the day after that. They didn’t know where she was. So I called around town, and couldn’t find her.”

  “And you left it there?” Colonel Ed Banning inquired, not pleasantly.

  Dunston replied, “You don’t know this lady, Banning . . .”

  Pickering picked up on that—“Banning,” not “Colonel”—and thought, Dunston’s resentment is starting to show.

  “. . . she’s a free spirit,” Dunston went on. “There’s no telling where she would be. I figured maybe she arranged her own ride to Wonsan—she doesn’t like waiting—and that that had happened in such a way that she didn’t have time to call me. Or didn’t want to.”

  “So you stopped looking?” Banning asked.

  “What I did, Banning, was get on the horn to Wonsan, specifically to the Capital ROK Division—we have a friend there, a colonel named Pak—and asked him to look for her, to have her call me, and then I called Zimmerman at Socho-Ri. Ernie knew about the major having been picked up, and he had already started checking around for the Priestly woman. I told him to keep looking, and to give me a yell if he found her.”

  “And he never called, Bill?” Pickering asked.

  “He never called.”

  “Gunner Zimmerman looked all over for her, sir,” Jennings said, “and when I came here, he told me to call him and let him know where she was. I guess he figured if she wasn’t in Wonsan, or anywhere on the east coast, she had to be either here or in Pusan.”

  “So the bottom line,” Banning began unpleasantly, “is that you were ordered to find Miss Priestly, and not only haven’t done so, but didn’t inform anyone that you failed—”

  “That will enough, Colonel,” Pickering interrupted him, coldly.

  Banning was visibly surprised by both the order and the tone of Pickering’s voice.

  “He’s right, General,” Dunston said. “I guess I dropped the ball.”

  “I don’t look at it that way,” Pickering said. “You did what you thought had to be done. But I’m open for suggestions. ”

  “I’ll go out to K-16 and check with the Air Force,” Dunston said. “
The base commander is a pretty good guy. And while I’m doing that, Jennings is first going to get on the horn to Zimmerman, and then start calling all the division public information officers. She has to be here somewhere.”

  “When are you going to do this?” Pickering asked.

  “That whoosh you hear, General, is me going out the door,” Dunston said. He put his champagne glass on the table. “I’ll finish this,” he said, “when I have put my hands on the lady.”

  He walked out of the dining room. Jennings followed him.

  Pickering looked at Banning.

  “Come with me, please, Colonel,” he said.

  He walked out of the dining room with Banning on his heels, and led him out of the building into the courtyard. He stopped in the middle.

  “Okay, Ed,” he said. “You’ve got a hair up your ass. Tell me what it’s all about.”

  “Sir, I don’t know what you—”

  “You’ve been pissing everybody off with your attitude since you got here, and I want to know why.”

  “With respect, sir, I don’t—”

  “You can either tell me what’s bothering you, Ed, or I’m going to tell George to get you a seat on the first flight out of here tomorrow, and that will be the first leg of your flight to the States. I like you, we’re—I have always thought— old and good friends, but I cannot afford to have you come in here with an attitude that’s pissing off good people. You understand me?”

  They locked eyes.

  “That was a question, Colonel,” Pickering said.

  Banning exhaled audibly.

  “Milla’s in the hospital,” he said softly.

  “Milla’s in the hospital? When did this happen?”

  “She went in yesterday, or the day before—I don’t even know what day it is in the States, much less what time—to have a lump removed from her breast. Or maybe the whole breast, depending on what they find.”

  “Then what the hell are you doing here?” Pickering said.

  “You sent for me,” Banning said simply.

  “Jesus H. Christ! If I had known about your wife . . .”